William Roache told police: ‘I had plenty of very attractive, wonderful partners’

Coronation Street star William Roache boasted to detectives that he had slept with ‘plenty of very attractive’ women and wasn’t attracted to ‘youngsters’, a court heard.

The 81-year-old actor also accused his alleged sexual assault victims of angling for ‘a moment of fame’ by lying about their encounters with him.

In a police interview before his arrest, Roache claimed to have never met his accusers, although he did admit there might have been a ‘flirty moment’ when young girls asked for his autograph.

When quizzed about why five separate women would claim to have been raped or sexually assaulted by him when they were aged under 16, Roache told officers: ‘Look, I can only conjecture, I can guess and make all sorts of comments, only they know. It didn’t happen. I had plenty of very attractive, wonderful partners. I love women and I love making love to women but it has to be with their full co-operation and full enjoyment. Youngsters have no attraction to me at all.’

Roache also claimed that raping someone was ‘against my nature’ as he was a ‘very peaceful person’.

He added: ‘The climate of what’s happening at the moment, a lot of people are coming out accusing celebrities, for various reasons, and I don’t know what her motivation is.

‘I can only surmise there’s some hope of selling articles to the newspaper, a moment of fame. I don’t know what the motivation would be and I’m absolutely horrified at the whole thing.’

And when asked why one of the defendants would have claimed he raped her twice, once in his own home, Roache told officers: ‘I was always polite and friendly with the viewers and people in the street. I have no idea why she would come up with this. [I] absolutely categorically deny knowing her or doing anything with her.’

Detectives said that when the accusations were put to him, Roache looked ‘visibly shocked and broke into a sweat’ and was allowed to sit down and be given a glass of water.

Roache, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, denies two rapes and five indecent assaults between 1965 and 1971. The trial at Preston crown court continues.